This book charts a neuroscientist's journey to understand the central mysteries of consciousness. The author began his career in the neurophysiology of vision in the 1980s, just when the field was ...
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This book charts a neuroscientist's journey to understand the central mysteries of consciousness. The author began his career in the neurophysiology of vision in the 1980s, just when the field was coming into focus with the advent of new computing and imaging technologies. As a pioneer in the technique of mesoscopic imaging, he worked with some of the giants in vision science: Torsten Wiesel, Francis Crick, Tom Albright, and many others. This book shows how science is built on such relationships. Along the way, the book gives a vivid sense of the abundant passion and creativity that drive scientists in their pursuit of understanding.Less

Another Day in the Monkey's Brain

Ralph SiegelForeword by Oliver Sacks

Published in print: 2012-08-16

This book charts a neuroscientist's journey to understand the central mysteries of consciousness. The author began his career in the neurophysiology of vision in the 1980s, just when the field was coming into focus with the advent of new computing and imaging technologies. As a pioneer in the technique of mesoscopic imaging, he worked with some of the giants in vision science: Torsten Wiesel, Francis Crick, Tom Albright, and many others. This book shows how science is built on such relationships. Along the way, the book gives a vivid sense of the abundant passion and creativity that drive scientists in their pursuit of understanding.

The concept of apraxia was shaped by the German psychiatrist Hugo Liepmann some 100 years ago. He suggested that fibers connecting posterior brain regions to the motor cortex are the anatomical ...
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The concept of apraxia was shaped by the German psychiatrist Hugo Liepmann some 100 years ago. He suggested that fibers connecting posterior brain regions to the motor cortex are the anatomical substrate of the conversion of multimodal mental images of intended actions into motor commands. Liepmann’s ideas fell into disgrace during the middle of the twentieth century but were resuscitated in its last third and became dominant for modern research. Alternative approaches agreed with Liepmann in the distinction between high and low levels of motor commands. The book discusses manifestations and aspects of apraxia with an emphasis on the high versus low level of control which is conceptualized as a distinction between cognitive and motor aspects of action control. It concludes that the cognitive nature of apraxia comes to the fore most clearly in three manifestations of apraxia that are exclusively bound to left-hemisphere damage: imitation of meaningless hand postures, use of single mechanical tools, and pantomime of tool use. Their functional communality is a central role for segmentation and combination. For imitation, visual features of the demonstrated gesture are segmented into distinct body parts which are combined for reproducing the posture. For tool use the structures of tool and recipient are segmented into functionally significant traits which are combined to form mechanical chains, and for pantomime the compound image of hand, action, and object is segmented into distinctive features of the object and the acting hand which are combined to form a comprehensible image of the object and its use.Less

Apraxia : The Cognitive side of motor control

Georg Goldenberg

Published in print: 2013-07-04

The concept of apraxia was shaped by the German psychiatrist Hugo Liepmann some 100 years ago. He suggested that fibers connecting posterior brain regions to the motor cortex are the anatomical substrate of the conversion of multimodal mental images of intended actions into motor commands. Liepmann’s ideas fell into disgrace during the middle of the twentieth century but were resuscitated in its last third and became dominant for modern research. Alternative approaches agreed with Liepmann in the distinction between high and low levels of motor commands. The book discusses manifestations and aspects of apraxia with an emphasis on the high versus low level of control which is conceptualized as a distinction between cognitive and motor aspects of action control. It concludes that the cognitive nature of apraxia comes to the fore most clearly in three manifestations of apraxia that are exclusively bound to left-hemisphere damage: imitation of meaningless hand postures, use of single mechanical tools, and pantomime of tool use. Their functional communality is a central role for segmentation and combination. For imitation, visual features of the demonstrated gesture are segmented into distinct body parts which are combined for reproducing the posture. For tool use the structures of tool and recipient are segmented into functionally significant traits which are combined to form mechanical chains, and for pantomime the compound image of hand, action, and object is segmented into distinctive features of the object and the acting hand which are combined to form a comprehensible image of the object and its use.

The study of attention is central to psychology. This book presents the science of attention in a larger social context, which includes our ability voluntarily to choose and act upon an object of ...
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The study of attention is central to psychology. This book presents the science of attention in a larger social context, which includes our ability voluntarily to choose and act upon an object of thought. The volume is based on fifty years of research involving behavioral, imaging, developmental, and genetic methods. It describes three brain networks of attention that carry out the functions of obtaining and maintaining the alert state, orienting to sensory events, and regulating responses. The book ties these brain networks to anatomy, connectivity, development, and socialization, and includes material on pathologies that involve attentional networks as well as their role in education and social interaction.Less

Attention in a Social World

Michael I. Posner

Published in print: 2012-02-08

The study of attention is central to psychology. This book presents the science of attention in a larger social context, which includes our ability voluntarily to choose and act upon an object of thought. The volume is based on fifty years of research involving behavioral, imaging, developmental, and genetic methods. It describes three brain networks of attention that carry out the functions of obtaining and maintaining the alert state, orienting to sensory events, and regulating responses. The book ties these brain networks to anatomy, connectivity, development, and socialization, and includes material on pathologies that involve attentional networks as well as their role in education and social interaction.

How does motivation work? The classic answer is that people are motivated to approach pleasure and avoid pain, that they are motivated by “carrots and sticks.” But to understand human motivation, it ...
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How does motivation work? The classic answer is that people are motivated to approach pleasure and avoid pain, that they are motivated by “carrots and sticks.” But to understand human motivation, it is necessary to go beyond pleasure and pain. What people want is to be effective in their life pursuits, and there are three distinct ways that people want to be effective. They want to be effective in having desired results (value), which includes having pleasure but is not limited to pleasure. They want to be effective in managing what happens (control) and in establishing what's real (truth), even if the process of managing what happens or establishing what's real is painful. These three distinct ways of wanting to be effective go beyond just wanting pleasure, but there is even more to the story of how motivation works. These ways of wanting to be effective do not function in isolation. Rather, they work together. Indeed, the ways that value, truth, and control work together is the central story of motivation. By understanding how motivation works as an organization of value, truth, and control, we can re-think basic motivational issues, such the nature of personality and culture, how the motives of others can be managed effectively, and what is “the good life”.Less

Beyond Pleasure and Pain : How Motivation Works

E. Tory Higgins

Published in print: 2011-10-11

How does motivation work? The classic answer is that people are motivated to approach pleasure and avoid pain, that they are motivated by “carrots and sticks.” But to understand human motivation, it is necessary to go beyond pleasure and pain. What people want is to be effective in their life pursuits, and there are three distinct ways that people want to be effective. They want to be effective in having desired results (value), which includes having pleasure but is not limited to pleasure. They want to be effective in managing what happens (control) and in establishing what's real (truth), even if the process of managing what happens or establishing what's real is painful. These three distinct ways of wanting to be effective go beyond just wanting pleasure, but there is even more to the story of how motivation works. These ways of wanting to be effective do not function in isolation. Rather, they work together. Indeed, the ways that value, truth, and control work together is the central story of motivation. By understanding how motivation works as an organization of value, truth, and control, we can re-think basic motivational issues, such the nature of personality and culture, how the motives of others can be managed effectively, and what is “the good life”.

The book considers the nature of the bilingual brain by framing it around three specific issues: age of acquisition, language proficiency and cognitive control. To achieve this the book is divided ...
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The book considers the nature of the bilingual brain by framing it around three specific issues: age of acquisition, language proficiency and cognitive control. To achieve this the book is divided into three separate sections that consist of two chapters each. The first chapter considers of each section considers the issues within the monolingual and nonverbal cognitive literature. The second applies these basic principles to the bilingual literature. Work across cognitive psychology and neuroscience are used to bolster the main arguments. An introduction and conclusion serve to frame the discussion and to finalize it, respectively. Hernandez ends by suggesting that bilingualism is best understood within a model that takes into account principles from neuroscience and cognitive psychology when considering the learning of two languages.Less

The Bilingual Brain

Arturo E. Hernandez

Published in print: 2013-09-19

The book considers the nature of the bilingual brain by framing it around three specific issues: age of acquisition, language proficiency and cognitive control. To achieve this the book is divided into three separate sections that consist of two chapters each. The first chapter considers of each section considers the issues within the monolingual and nonverbal cognitive literature. The second applies these basic principles to the bilingual literature. Work across cognitive psychology and neuroscience are used to bolster the main arguments. An introduction and conclusion serve to frame the discussion and to finalize it, respectively. Hernandez ends by suggesting that bilingualism is best understood within a model that takes into account principles from neuroscience and cognitive psychology when considering the learning of two languages.

Many decisions in the legal system and elsewhere depend on predictions of bad behaviors, including crimes and mental illnesses. Some scientists have suggested recently that these predictions can ...
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Many decisions in the legal system and elsewhere depend on predictions of bad behaviors, including crimes and mental illnesses. Some scientists have suggested recently that these predictions can become more accurate and useful if they are based in part on biological information, such as brain structure and function, genes, and hormones. The prospect of such bioprediction, however, raises serious concerns about errors and injustice. Can biological information significantly increase the accuracy of predictions of bad behavior? Will innocent or harmless people be mistakenly treated as if they were guilty or dangerous? Is it fair to keep people in prisons or mental institutions longer because of their biology? Will these new instruments of bioprediction be abused in practice within current institutions? Is bioprediction worth the cost? Do we want our government to use biology in this way? All of these scientific, legal, and ethical questions are discussed in this volume.Less

Published in print: 2013-10-18

Many decisions in the legal system and elsewhere depend on predictions of bad behaviors, including crimes and mental illnesses. Some scientists have suggested recently that these predictions can become more accurate and useful if they are based in part on biological information, such as brain structure and function, genes, and hormones. The prospect of such bioprediction, however, raises serious concerns about errors and injustice. Can biological information significantly increase the accuracy of predictions of bad behavior? Will innocent or harmless people be mistakenly treated as if they were guilty or dangerous? Is it fair to keep people in prisons or mental institutions longer because of their biology? Will these new instruments of bioprediction be abused in practice within current institutions? Is bioprediction worth the cost? Do we want our government to use biology in this way? All of these scientific, legal, and ethical questions are discussed in this volume.

Damage to a particular area of the brain — the neocortex — is generally understood to result in blindness. Studies of some patients who have suffered from this form of blindness have nevertheless ...
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Damage to a particular area of the brain — the neocortex — is generally understood to result in blindness. Studies of some patients who have suffered from this form of blindness have nevertheless revealed that they can, in fact, discriminate certain types of visual events within their ‘blind’ fields without being aware that they can do so: they think they are only ‘guessing’. This phenomenon has been termed ‘blindsight’ by the author of this book and his collaborators who were among the first to describe it. It continues to attract considerable interest among neuroscientists, psychologists, and philosophers who see possible implications for theories of perception and consciousness. This book gives an account of the research into a particular case of blindsight, together with a discussion of the historical and neurological background. The empirical findings are followed by a review of other cases reported by other investigators, in which there is a dysjunction between clinical assessment of blindness and unexpected findings of residual function. Finally, a number of theoretical and practical issues and implications are discussed. This reissued version of the text includes a new Introduction summarizing some of the advances that have taken place in the field since the book was first published in 1986.Less

Blindsight : A Case Study and Implications

L. Weiskrantz

Published in print: 1990-08-09

Damage to a particular area of the brain — the neocortex — is generally understood to result in blindness. Studies of some patients who have suffered from this form of blindness have nevertheless revealed that they can, in fact, discriminate certain types of visual events within their ‘blind’ fields without being aware that they can do so: they think they are only ‘guessing’. This phenomenon has been termed ‘blindsight’ by the author of this book and his collaborators who were among the first to describe it. It continues to attract considerable interest among neuroscientists, psychologists, and philosophers who see possible implications for theories of perception and consciousness. This book gives an account of the research into a particular case of blindsight, together with a discussion of the historical and neurological background. The empirical findings are followed by a review of other cases reported by other investigators, in which there is a dysjunction between clinical assessment of blindness and unexpected findings of residual function. Finally, a number of theoretical and practical issues and implications are discussed. This reissued version of the text includes a new Introduction summarizing some of the advances that have taken place in the field since the book was first published in 1986.

This book looks at what we have learned over the last century in attempting to discover how the brain enables us to acquire, retain, and use information based on experiences. The major central ...
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This book looks at what we have learned over the last century in attempting to discover how the brain enables us to acquire, retain, and use information based on experiences. The major central questions posed in the book are: What processes underlie the formation of new memories? What processes determine the strength of memories? Where are the changes underlying memory located? The chapters in this book review recent progress in research investigating emotion and memory, aging and memory, plasticity of the cerebral cortex, and synaptic connectivity and memory. William James, Ivan Pavlov, Karl Lashley, Donald Hebb, and the other pioneers in this field would, of course, find these topics familiar. But they would also find that in recent years these topics have been investigated in unexpected ways and that the findings have greatly expanded the questions that can be asked as well as the experimental techniques that can be employed.Less

Brain and Memory : Modulation and Mediation of Neuroplasticity

James L. McGaughNorman M. WeinbergerGary Lynch

Published in print: 1995-05-11

This book looks at what we have learned over the last century in attempting to discover how the brain enables us to acquire, retain, and use information based on experiences. The major central questions posed in the book are: What processes underlie the formation of new memories? What processes determine the strength of memories? Where are the changes underlying memory located? The chapters in this book review recent progress in research investigating emotion and memory, aging and memory, plasticity of the cerebral cortex, and synaptic connectivity and memory. William James, Ivan Pavlov, Karl Lashley, Donald Hebb, and the other pioneers in this field would, of course, find these topics familiar. But they would also find that in recent years these topics have been investigated in unexpected ways and that the findings have greatly expanded the questions that can be asked as well as the experimental techniques that can be employed.

Magnetic resonance imaging methods, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), have taken a commanding position in brain studies because they allow ...
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Magnetic resonance imaging methods, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), have taken a commanding position in brain studies because they allow scientists to follow brain activities in the living human. The ability to measure cerebral anatomy, neuronal firing, and brain metabolism has extended and reinvigorated hopes of understanding the role that brain activity plays in human life. Neuroscientists, measuring brain energies and work by imaging methods, have consciously or unconsciously been incorporating philosophical views into the planning and interpretations of these experiments. This book assumes that behavior is a property only of the person; that the person, not the brain, remembers, intends, or decides. The brain’s role is to help the person perform these actions just as the muscle helps him to lift heavy objects and the liver maintains chemical homeostasis. Origins of the brain’s role in neuroscience are explored in a selective history of relevant philosophies and by examples of successful interdisciplinary experiments. Neuroimaging experiments that relate brain activities to observables, including human behavior, are herein valued above those that conduct futile searches for the neuronal basis of mental processes. In accord with the emphasis on observable behavior, neuroimaging results responsible for two different forms of conscious behavior have been identified and the means of studying them described.Less

Brain Imaging : What it Can (and Cannot) Tell Us About Consciousness

Robert G. Shulman

Published in print: 2013-05-07

Magnetic resonance imaging methods, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), have taken a commanding position in brain studies because they allow scientists to follow brain activities in the living human. The ability to measure cerebral anatomy, neuronal firing, and brain metabolism has extended and reinvigorated hopes of understanding the role that brain activity plays in human life. Neuroscientists, measuring brain energies and work by imaging methods, have consciously or unconsciously been incorporating philosophical views into the planning and interpretations of these experiments. This book assumes that behavior is a property only of the person; that the person, not the brain, remembers, intends, or decides. The brain’s role is to help the person perform these actions just as the muscle helps him to lift heavy objects and the liver maintains chemical homeostasis. Origins of the brain’s role in neuroscience are explored in a selective history of relevant philosophies and by examples of successful interdisciplinary experiments. Neuroimaging experiments that relate brain activities to observables, including human behavior, are herein valued above those that conduct futile searches for the neuronal basis of mental processes. In accord with the emphasis on observable behavior, neuroimaging results responsible for two different forms of conscious behavior have been identified and the means of studying them described.

It has been 10 years since the first edition of “The Handbook of the Cognitive Neuroscience of Aging: was published. The field was in its infancy at that time, and has matured rapidly, as a reading ...
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It has been 10 years since the first edition of “The Handbook of the Cognitive Neuroscience of Aging: was published. The field was in its infancy at that time, and has matured rapidly, as a reading of the present volume will quickly establish. The original chapters often laid out an agenda for directions for future research, and it is quite gratifying to note that the present chapters reflect advances in methodology, basic processes, and health that were called for in the earlier volume. A brief summary of the major contribution to the discipline of each chapter is presented.Less

Published in print: 2016-12-28

It has been 10 years since the first edition of “The Handbook of the Cognitive Neuroscience of Aging: was published. The field was in its infancy at that time, and has matured rapidly, as a reading of the present volume will quickly establish. The original chapters often laid out an agenda for directions for future research, and it is quite gratifying to note that the present chapters reflect advances in methodology, basic processes, and health that were called for in the earlier volume. A brief summary of the major contribution to the discipline of each chapter is presented.

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